Reporters ask Jr questions. He gets so scared he hides in the elevator. (He took it from the current floor to... THE SAME FLOOR.)

Look, Kean, Jr... the sooner people find out you aren’t a clone of your dad the better it will be for New Jersey. You claim you are your own man, but you’ve never voted against a Bush idea. Your dad was his own man, and broke away from the Republicans on important issues such as education, the environment (”Having clean water to drink is not a Republican or Democrat issue”), GLBTI issues, AIDS, sex education, and many other issues. That’s why people liked him.

The more word spreads that you paid Tomicki for $50,000 to help craft your message so that homophobes and racists would “read between the lines” but not sound like the bigot you are, the better it is for NJ. Tomiki is the guy who says that battered women shouldn’t be allowed to get divorced (they just need to STOP BEING SUCH A BITCH), that gays shouldn’t marry, and that blacks should... well, he thinks the secret to winning the black vote is to give every black minister in Camden a $2,000 donation the week before election night in exchange for not encouraging their members to vote.

You aren’t your father. I knew your father. We were on a first-name basis... and I don’t just say that because every time I met with him I was wearing a nametag that said, “Tom” on it. I’m saying that because I honestly believe that he remembered that he had a good way to remember my name, such as remembering that it was the same first name as his.

“If I can’t fucking cut the budget, I’m going to blow up every shuttle until they can’t fly any more. I’m sick and tired of having this group of ‘oh look at what the Government can be successful at if we just put our minds to it’ bastards sitting around. Did flying to the moon really help anyone? Hell no. So if I can’t kill it off, I’m going to make more shuttles *esplode* until their aren’t any more left, or becomes unpopular enough so that I finally *can* end the entire NASA program. Oh, yeah, I’ll keep the Military Space Program which costs 100x what we spend on NASA, and I’ll certainly keep the put-satelites-in-space-for-corporations-for-free program that costs 50x what we spend on NASA... those are worth it. But learnin’ about space rocks? Fuck that. And fuck anyone that ever voted for John Glenn.” --Sincerely, George Bush

Ok, it wasn’t a direct quote. I was exaggerating and I’m sure someone can correct me about the financial figures. For the real story, you’ll have to read this:

> I’m actually more horrified that so many undergrads apparently want> to work for the government.

Working for the government is a great way to serve ones country.

If I may go off on a rant...

The middle part of “Of the people, by the people, and for the people” means that our government is made up of people (like Soylent Green, but better.)

That’s a fairly radical statement when you consider that historically governments were made up of deities (or people that told everyone they were). It also means that (despite public perception) the government isn’t made up of “someone else”. It’s made up of us!

The U.S. government is as good as we make it. Whether that’s by voting, running for office, or by being employed by it. You can’t just say, “it’s beyond fixing... I sure hope someone else fixes it” or worse, “

Think about the Google culture of openness that lets us take 20% of our time to fix/improve the things that we care about here. Citizens have that 20% with respect to the U.S. government. Being on your local school board is usually a 2-nights-per-month commitment. Certainly less than 20% of the average person’s spare time. There are plenty of other ways to get involved too. Undergrads that want to work for the government are usually looking to dedicate 100% to improving things. That’s something we should all encourage.

Yes, government workers have a stereotype of being “clock watchers”, lacking creativity, or special skills. If you want to fix that, do something about it. Don’t have time? I recommend the following: Figure out how much you make per hour (hint: there are about 2000 hours in the work year) and donate twice that to a candidate or organization that believes the same way you do. That’s a lot like donating 2 hours of time each month.

Just like at Google, problems don’t fix themselves so “don’t wait for someone else to act”.